Published: Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 8:37 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, March 28, 2013 at 8:37 p.m.

It's pills, said Lt. John Champagne, head of the Sheriff's Office narcotics investigation team.

After buying pain medication illegally, people take far more than the recommended dose. They crush them up and snort them or inject them, officials said. They wash them down with alcohol.

The level of abuse is high in Terrebonne Parish as well, Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said.

According to his narcotics team, “some people are taking six to eight OxyContin a day,” Larpenter said. “That's a lot.”

That's why the state Attorney General's Office officials said they are calling on federal regulators to make pain pills harder to abuse.

Drug overdose is the leading cause of death — when it comes to unintentional injuries — in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That exceeds vehicle crashes.

But if people want to use pills to get high, they're going to find a way to do it, Champagne and Larpenter said.

Yet state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said he thinks the federal government can at least try to keep people from crushing them up and therefore keep them from snorting them and injecting them.

Federal regulations have pushed companies making name-brand painkillers, such as OxyContin, to develop pills that are harder to tamper with by adding new physical and chemical features, but addicts are only turning to generic brands as a result, according to a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed by 47 attorney generals, including Caldwell.

“We encourage the FDA to assure that generic versions of such products are designed with similar features,” the letter concludes.

However, Larpenter and his narcotics agent Darryl Stewart said they're concerned that when pills become harder to abuse, addicts turn to other drugs. When synthetic morphine, like Hydrocodone and Oxycodone, began to replace some doctors' use of morphine, some morphine abusers turned to heroin, Larpenter and Stewart said.

“We encourage and appreciate any attempts that are made to curtail the use of these drugs for illegal use,” Stewart said. “We do realize, however, that individuals with these addictions will often divert to the use of heroin. The individuals will base their method of use on price and accessibility. Changing the manner in which the drug is manufactured is a positive attempt in keeping it from being used improperly. Individuals involved in criminal activity will always look for alternatives.

“We always welcome and encourage attempts to curtail illicit drug use. It is additionally important that we realize and recognize the effects of these changes.”

But pills aren't really gateway drugs, Champagne said. He said he agrees with Caldwell.

“If there's any way we can stop the abuse, go for it,” he said.

Still, such reforms won't make a difference in Champagne's line of work, he said. The possession of pain medication without a prescription and distribution are what his concerns are as a narcotics agent.

“The shooting up of a drug or snorting is just a means of consumption,” Champagne said.

Addicts may simply swallow more pills than usual, rather than injecting or inhaling them, he said.

“There are always people trying to circumvent (regulations), just like there are always people trying to circumvent the law,” Champagne said.

Larpenter said he would prefer federal officials institute a nationwide database of pain prescriptions, as Louisiana recently implemented statewide. Such databases notify law enforcement when someone fills pain prescriptions from different doctors in a short period of time, Larpenter said.

A nationwide database would keep drug dealers from visiting doctors in Texas, then bringing the drugs back to Louisiana to sell, Larpenter said.

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.

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